January 22, 2010

Irish poultry exports to UK take a downturn

Exports of Irish poultry products fell by 11%, from €203 million (US$285 million) in 2008 to €180m (US$253) in 2009.

Bord Bia, the Irish food board, attributed this to further declines in the sterling - 80% of Irish exports go to the UK - as well as lower consumer spending.

"The Irish poultry industry has to compete with imports from UK and our exports are mostly into the UK market which is our single largest market," said Aidan Cotter, chief executive of Bord Bia.

He was speaking at the launch of the Bord Bia Performance and Prospects 2009-2010 report, which stated that Irish broiler production is estimated to have increased marginally.

Up to the end of August, Irish poultry meat exports were 10% higher due to increased processed poultry and frozen and chilled volumes. However, the value of exports declined by 12% during this period.

Processed poultry products now account for two-thirds of the volume of exports. Looking forward, the outlook for 2010 is that consumption levels will rise marginally.

Irish poultry production is expected to remain stable for broilers and that will maintain export volumes. However, the pressure on the value of processed poultry will continue.

On the plus side, more stable feed prices and improved demand for poultry will help create a more stable market in 2010

With reference to Europe, the report stated that European broiler prices started reasonably, but dropped to 2008 levels from February and declined by an estimated 6% over the entire year of 2009.

Overall demand across Europe was reasonable, but poultry did not gain as much as expected from the slowdown in consumer spending. The EU-27 consumption of poultry fell marginally to just over 23g per capita or 11.5 million tonnes.

Imports were down by 3% reflecting lower supplies from Brazil and Thailand. Most of the fall in EU imports occurred in the frozen poultry categories.